Improvement in adjustable railway trucks



A.V.SANFORD{ Adjustable Car Truck. No 105,984. Patented Au '2, 1 70.

N. PETERSA PNOTO-LITHOGRAPNER WASHINGTON D C form shown in fig.

.. gut llll i ADDISON v. SANFORD, UNION CENTRE, NEWYORK.

Letters Patent No. 105,984, dated 1 1ugast2p187 0.

IMPROVEMENT IN ADJUSTABLE RAILWAY TRUCKS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of thesame I a I, ADDIISONNV. SAnFORb, of Union Centre, in the I a county ofBroome and State oi New York, have invented certain Improvements inAdjustable Oar-Trucks, of which the following is a specification. 1

"It is frequently necessary to ship freight over. confleetinglinesJf'rhih-oald having tracks of different widthsor gauges, and, insodoing, itis desirable to avoid reshipping at .each change of gauge,thereby effecting a greatsaving of time, expense of handling,

Y 8w- My invention has forits object the; provision of means wherebycarscan be made to run upon" tracks. of varying gauges, and, to this end,

It consists ll1 y i t First, a novel construction of the truck, to allowthe wheels to be set to fit either a narrow or abroad gauge, and toautomatically lock them in their posi- I tion. againstaccidental,displacement; and,

r Second, in combining with the intermediate section of rails, whichconnects thetracks of different widths, alongitudmal stringerorrib,provided with inclined ends for operating the locking devices. 1

,Figure l is a perspective view of a truckiand trackembodyingmyinvention; Figure 2 is a detached view of theaxlc; and

- Figure 3 is a detached yiewof the ltcy' plate.

In the drawing- 1 A A represent a broad gauge, and BB a narrow-gaugetrack.

O G arerailsibrming an intermediate connecting sectiom- I I y 0'0 areguard-railsplaced between rails G O, at such distance from them as willreadily admitthe flange of a car-wheel. The purpose of these guardrailswilLbc fully explained hereafter.

l D are ribs, stringers, or guides,placed a short dis l-gtnceoutside ofrails O O, and parallel to rails A or a E E'represent the body or thecar-truck, of any usual or desired construction, and provided with boxesforthereception of axle F. t T These axles are dividedeat orjnear theircenters,

and the two members of each are connected by means ofsleeve E, which isrigidly attached to one member, while the other member has afreelongitndinal move- 1 ment within said sleeve, thus forming anextensible axle; The axles are of uniform diameter throughout their"entire length, and can, therefore, move freely endwisefin theboxcs uponwhich the body of the truck.is supported, 1 a

l l fare grooves in the outer endsof the axles, as shown infig'..2,where the gleev'e is also fully shown.

G is a'strap or bracket, made substantially in the 1," and provided witha perforation, g, a little larger ban the axle F. These brackets arebolted or otherwise secured to'the body of the truck at. the outer endsof the axles, in such position that theperfora'tions gsballbe on a linecoincident with axle F, when the latter are in their proper gauges,sleeve F may be a position in the trucks,

H is a key-plate, provided withan elongated slot, h. The lower end ofthis slot is of sufl'ieient size to allow axle F to. pass freely throughit, while the up \per end corresponds in size to the diameter of theaxle in'the bottom of the groove f; and the thickness of plate-H, atthis end of th'eslot, isa little less than the width of said groove, sothat the plate will readily fit intoand occupy the'groove, whenrequired. p

' The key-plate His placed on the inner face of the bracket G, beingconfined in a suitable groove, or its equivalent, in such. manner thatit (the key-plate) can slide up and down when actuated by the stem'H'and spring h. r y The operation of my invention is as follows vWhenrunning upon .the narrowest gauge for which the truck is adapted,the wheels .will be broughtas 'near together as possible, in; fact, Iprefer that the inner ends of the divided axle should touch each otherwithin the sleeve F, the key-plate H being dropped down intr') thepositions'hown in fig. 1, with the outer ends of the axles abuttingagainst it, in which posh tion there can, of course, be no longitudinalmovement of the axles, and the wheels will, of course, tread the trackperfectly. -Wh'eu we approach a change of gauge, the stem H will strikethe incline on the stringer D, and raise the key-plate H, so as to bringthe larger end of slot 8 h on a line with the axle, just before thewheels reach rails 0 OZ 0 1 When, however, .the wheels do reach theserails,

the inner side of their flanges will impinge upon guardrails O G,and,,as the truck moves forward, the wheels will be spread apart, andwhen they have reached the broad gauge, the stem H will pass off fromthe stringer D and the key-plate H, descendingiinto the groove f, willcontinethe wheels in proper position for this width ortraclc, i r I Ofcourse, in moving from a broad to a narrow track, the necessaryadjustment will be made in a. similar manner, the wheels beingforcedtogether by rails 0 (ll a By increasing the number of grooves, f, thetruck may be adapted to traverse more than two different and, whenadditional security is desired,"'the provided with a set-screw, as at f,fig. 2, which may be made to engage with a groove, f upon the inner endof one-ht lf of the axle.

Having now described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-.-

1. The adjustable axe F, in combination with the Witnesses:

HENRY W. Roms, Lowntn Grnmose.

